Styling your site to Awesomeness

Now that you have taken a first walk around your WordPress admin area, it is time to start designing your site and creating your first blog post.

…

Excited? – let’s do it! There are several options to find a good theme – both free and paid – depending on your needs.

…

First, let’s clarify what a THEME is:

…

A theme is the “face” of your blog. It creates the overall design and style of your site as well as the individual page and post layout. Think of a car: the WordPress software is what runs the site (like the engine, transmission, etc.). The theme provides the exterior (the body and trim of the car). This is what your visitors see when they come to your site.

…

When choosing a theme you have 3 options:

…

1) a free theme: can give you a basic start

…

2) a low to medium priced premium theme (ca. $10 – 40):

most free themes can be upgraded to this option

…

3) an advanced high priced premium theme (ca. $60 – $150)

…

A good place to start is WordPress.org. They have a wide range of free themes, many with the option to upgrade to a premium version at a reasonable price.

…

For most new websites this option will be enough, at least to get you started. Especially, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money in the beginning.

…

You can try a free version and see if it’s easy to use. If you like it, you upgrade to the premium version and gain access to more advanced features – which you will probably need eventually. A lot of the higher priced themes are more complex, with lots of extra features that sound great, but can be confusing in the beginning. And sometimes you need “coding” (e.g., complex web designer lingo) to adjust them to your needs (even if the description claims that you don’t!). A simpler theme with not too much “schnick-schnack” is a good way to start and learn the basics of WordPress. Once you are more comfortable and feel there are additional features that you need, you can always upgrade. By then the learning curve will be a lot shorter.

…

Many features can be added with plugins (apps) and don’t necessarily require a different theme – though there are certainly a number of good reasons to eventually upgrade once your site is growing. But then you will have a much better understanding of what you need, rather than being overwhelmed with a flood of new words and strange features that you have never heard of, let alone know how to use. Eventually, you will want to switch to an advanced theme, because the features and overall functionality are amazing. But when you first start out, it’s most important to get you going without too much frustration or a long learning curve.

…

If a theme is driving you crazy, change it! – It’s not worth the aggravation and there are plenty of other themes that will serve your needs and are easy to use. A great adnikkon of premium themes is tech support. Even as a beginner you might have specific needs or questions and having tech support will save you a lot of time. Most themes though – even free themes – come with a “tour” to guide you through the basics and there are thousands of Youtube tutorials for any theme under the sun.

To be honest, I found this whole process a little overwhelming in the beginning. A lot of the features were new to me and I didn’t know what they meant. If that doesn’t scare you or you already found a theme that you like, feel free to skip to the next section. But if you would like a few pointers, I’ll be happy to share: I initially started on Blogger/Blogspot (remember, those “free” sites from Step 1…..?) . It was a waste of time, and the constant limitations eventually forced me to move elsewhere. After some rather frustrating experiences with more advanced themes that had dazzled me with amazing features but were much to complex for a beginner, I found an easy-to-use (and free) theme on WordPress.org: NikkonTheme

It has nice features, including a slider for pictures, a large collection of beautiful icons and Page Builder plugin which makes it super-easy to build different pages. Simply drag and drop, play with colors, fonts, etc., import images, mp3s or video – all super-easy and no coding needed.

…

Looking for a theme with “Page Builder” or “Content Builder” will make your life a LOT easier as they are very intuitive and easy to use.

…

Nikkon was well reviewed and starts with a free version that can be upgraded to premium at any time. There is no fixed price for the premium version, which is unusual. It is by choice, whatever you feel it is worth to you – so even $10 can get you the Premium version.

…

If you want tech support though, the minimum is $15 (one-time) – and I HIGHLY recommend that you pay at least that much.

…

I know this is a recurring theme throughout this blog….;-) – but I can’t say it often enough: having efficient tech support by your side will save you a LOT of time and make your designing experience much more enjoyable.

…

Nikkon’s email support is superb! – Fast, efficient with easy-to-follow instructions. They really go out of their way to help you.

…

The base theme here is Nikkon and adding Thrive Content Builder (TCB) brought in a whole new range of features, a cool look and most of all a simple drag & drop builder right in the finished page (you will see what I mean at the end of this blog when we write your first post).

…

TCB comes with Thrive Landing Pages. Those are designated download, sales, email sign up or “coming soon” pages, as well as some pop up forms (=“Lightboxes”). You might not need them when you first start out, but later, especially once you have ebooks or courses to sell – or even your freelance services – they will become an important part of your blog.

…

Do you need Thrive, just to get started? – Absolutely not! – But it’s good to have as an option for later.

…

If you are brand new, don’t worry too much about advanced features. A free theme like Nikkon will be fine to get you started and once you know better what your specific needs are, you can always add Thrive Content Builder or upgrade to another theme.

…

Whatever you decide, it is important that you are comfortable with your theme, because it will be your daily companion for years to come and shouldn’t be a constant frustration.

……

Installing your Theme

…

Now let’s install your theme!

…

If you chose one from WorkPress.org, you can upload it directly from the WordPress admin area:

…

Simply go to:

…

Appearances -> Themes

…

…

click Add New

…

…

enter the Theme name into the search bar on the right or find it by scrolling down the listings.

……

……

Hover over the Theme’s image, click Install and when a new screen opens, click Activate.

…

That’s it! – Your chosen theme is now running the show.

…

If you purchased a theme through another site, you were given a download link. The downloaded package will include a zip file and this is what you will upload to your WordPress account.

Once your theme is activated, take a tour to check out features and see where things are. Or just go through the options on the left side admin bar and click a few to get familiar. Most will be self-explanatory.

…

As themes can vary greatly in structure and usability, we will only cover a few general basics here.

…

A good place to start is Appearance. You will find:

…

Theme Settings

Every theme will vary in options, but you always want to have responsive enabled in both layout and navigation. This ensures that your site looks good on any mobile device – phones, iPads, etc.

…

Customize

This option will take you to a different screen where you can customize the overall settings for your site: fonts, colors, header/footer styles, etc.

…

You can also set a static front page depending on your preferences. Static refers to a classic home page, like http://ikidworld.com/ vs. a blog page with changing blog posts, and date/time stamp as well as comments.

……

Home Page

This is usually the first page people see when they visit your site and a good place for a photo slider (=slide show). Sliders can be found at the bottom of the left admin menu, often called Meta Slider). Not every theme comes with a slider, but there are plugins you can add.

…

Menus

To set up a menu, select Edit Menu and then one of the options on the left side: pages, posts, etc. Once the tab opens select Add to Menu and fill in your menu titles, etc.

…

Widgets

Widgets are features that can be added in the side bars, header or footer. Things like a search bar, social media icons or an About section. Also an Archive or a list of most popular posts. There are many to choose from and this will be another fun (and easy) part of your design experience.

…

Pages & Posts

As covered earlier, there are two different areas to design posts and pages, because they function differently. Blog posts, for example, have time/date stamps and comment boxes. Both are found in the admin bar at the top left. Click on either and then Add New. From there, you can enter your text, media, etc.

Publishing your first Post

…

Go to:

Posts -> Add New

…

…

The following screen will open:

…

Enter a page title, something like “Welcome” or “My First Post”, or whatever else comes to mind.

…

In the edit section, be sure you are on the Visual tab, not Text, and type something. Format any way you like, using the options at the top, very similar to Microsoft Word.

You can also fill out the info on the right screen (title/caption, etc.)

…

…

Next, click Preview in the upper right hand corner. The preview will open in a new window and you will see your first post in a basic design:

…

Close that window and click Publish on the upper right side.

…

Congratulations! – you have just published your first post.

*********

…

Next, you will want to change the design of your site and make it look more appealing. This will vary greatly with each theme, but the basic principles are always the same.

…

A good place to start is Customize (under Appearances) and set header/footer styles and colors, as well as font styles. This will also change the look of the individual pages and posts.

…

Next you might want to configure a Menu (also under Appearances). And then design each menu item under Add Pages. For a blog menu, use Add Posts. For the front page use Home Page (under Appearances).

…

These are some general pointers to get you started. The simpler themes are pretty intuitive and don’t need much additional explanation beyond the steps given here.

…

If you still feel overwhelmed, a video tutorial is a great way to jump start your designing efforts. Most themes have video tutorials on their support page and also offer a start up tour right within the WordPress admin area.

…

…

YouTube offers tutorials for pretty much every theme under the sun. And WordPress.org and WPBeginner.com are additional great resources.

…

The most important thing will be not to get overwhelmed or stop altogether. Just take your time and go at your own pace.

…

Getting a basic site up and running is not that complicated and you can always add more features later. The more you work with WordPress – and your particular theme – the easier it will get. And eventually it will be really fun!